More good news for Mathieu van der Poel in his quest to add Mountain Biking World Championship to his collection: "I am sure that Mathieu can do it"
Mountain Bike
Mathieu van der Poel, the Dutch cycling superstar, is no
stranger to world titles. With six cyclocross world championships, one road,
and one gravel title to his name, there is only one major prize missing from
his illustrious collection: the Mountain Biking World Championship. Van der
Poel himself admits that this elusive title still plays on his mind.
In 2025, his path to the mountain biking crown could be
slightly easier, thanks to a new UCI rule. The rule allows riders ranked in the
top 10 of another cycling discipline to start at least from the fifth row at
the Mountain Bike World Championships. This means Van der Poel, currently
ranked fifth in the UCI rankings for both road and cyclocross, will not need to
compete in numerous UCI mountain biking events to secure a favourable starting
position.
The new regulation, implemented after the Mountain Bike
World Championships in Glasgow, provides a significant advantage for
multi-discipline riders like Van der Poel. For the upcoming championships in
the Swiss Valais, the Dutchman can already count on starting from the fifth
row, even though he currently has no UCI points in mountain biking.
National coach Gerben de Knegt commented on the situation in
an interview with Sporza, saying, "It is true that Mathieu currently has
zero UCI points in mountain biking. So he will not start at the very front.
Even if Mathieu rode two World Cups, he would not end up in the top 100 of the
UCI rankings."
While the new rule helps, De Knegt highlighted the
challenges Van der Poel faces in his quest for the mountain biking title.
"I am sure that Mathieu can do it, but at some point before the World
Championships he will have to get the feeling that he can become world
champion," De Knegt explained.
He also noted the level of competition Van der Poel would
face, pointing out the dominance of British rider Tom Pidcock, "It’s been
a while since Mathieu has ridden mountain bike at the highest level. Tom
Pidcock is the two-time Olympic champion, you can’t beat him that easily,"
said De Knegt.
Fin MajorCycling Journalist
Fin Major is a UK-based writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2024. He is the site’s main writer for FAQs and evergreen explainers and has written around 2,000 pieces for the platform. Alongside this work, he focuses on in-depth analysis and covers the biggest races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, providing clear context around performance trends, tactics, and key storylines.
In his reporting, Fin uses reputable data sources such as ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. Outside of writing, Fin is an active cyclist, which supports his practical understanding of the sport and its demands.
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- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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